ABOUT US

Our Story

Achira Labs, founded in Bengaluru, India in 2009, is an ISO 13485 compliant microfluidics-based medical diagnostics company at the forefront of developing and commercializing innovative technologies for point-of-care medical testing. Our vision is to revolutionize point-of-care medical diagnostics by combining seamless testing with high-quality, trustworthy results. Leveraging fully automated load-and-go tests on a table-top platform, we offer rapid and reliable lab-quality quantitative results on multiplexed panels using just a finger prick volume of capillary blood, all at competitive price points.

VISION STATEMENT

Achira's Vision

Our primary goal is to make advanced medical testing more accessible by bringing sophisticated tests closer to the point of diagnosis, treatment, and management. This commitment is fueled by our cutting-edge research, state-of-the-art capabilities, strong collaborations, and deep expertise. At Achira Labs, we are dedicated to providing quality healthcare solutions that empower patients and doctors at the point of care with convenient and timely access to affordable and accurate medical testing. We strongly believe in patient-centric innovation as the driving force behind our endeavors.

 

FOUNDERS & ADVISORS

Suri Venkatchalam, Co-Founder

Suri Venkatachalam is the founder and currently serves as the CEO of Connexios Life Sciences. Connexios is a healthcare products company that leverages a unique translational network biology approach to disease biology to discover and develop novel therapeutics and diagnostics for unmet clinical needs in the area of chronic disease. Suri helped architect the translational network biology platform and is currently responsible for the science and business strategy at Connexios.

Suri is also one of the founding directors of Group Lifespring, a human health focused group of companies (including Connexios) spanning from discovery to health care that is supported by Nadathur Holdings and Investments. Before founding Connexios in 2003, Suri was part of the founding team and headed the bioinformatics efforts at Metahelix Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd. an agribiotech company based in Bangalore. Before, his move to industry, Suri was a Research Associate in computational ecology at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; a visiting scientist at the computer science department of Linkoping University, Sweden, an adjunct associate fellow at the National Institute of Advanced Studies and a LJIS Burroughs-Wellcome post doctoral fellow in computational neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. Suri holds a Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from Andhra University and a PhD in condensed matter physics from the Indian Institute of Science.

Dr. Dhananjaya Dendukuri, CEO & Co-Founder

Dhananjaya Dendukuri is Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of Achira Labs. Dhananjaya returned to India with his passion for engineering and belief that there is no better context for specific technology development that can be translated into solutions that have a big impact and unserved markets. He was named as one of 20 individuals to receive the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Technology Review’s prestigious TR35 awards in India for the work that was being done at Achira.

He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT in 2007 where his thesis work received the Senturia Prize for the best dissertation in the area of micro and nanotechnology. Prior to that, Dhananjaya obtained a MASC in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto and a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras where he received the ‘Institute Blue’. Outside of work, Dhananjaya enjoys running through the leafy parts of Bangalore and playing the Carnatic violin.

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Patrik Doyle, Scientific Advisor

Patrick is Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at MIT. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Prof. Doyle received a Chateaubriand Fellowship to pursue postdoctoral studies at the Institute Curie in Paris where he studied single molecule DNA dynamics. A major theme of his current research is the translation of a molecular understanding of transport phenomena into new microfluidics-based processes.

He was the recipient of a NSF CAREER Award, 3M Innovation Award, MipTec PolyPops Foundation Award, and John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. He is also the winner of the “Pioneers of Miniaturization” from the Lab on a Chip, Royal Society of Chemistry and Corning Inc, Rothschild-Yvette Mayent-Institute Curie Award, and Joliot Chair at E.S.P.C.I. in Paris.

TEAM

Our multidisciplinary team is built with professionals with complementary expertise across microfluidic engineering, analytical instrument development, assay development and sensor chemistry. Our team comprises over 10 PhDs from reputed Indian and international institutions along with experienced scientists and engineers that bring relevant experience across multiple domains. Our team is further augmented with relationships with leading experts globally who further enhance our combined capabilities.

INVESTORS & FUNDERS

PARTNERS & COLLABORATORS